Work remains in addressing Boulder police bias

Pedro Silva was startled one recent night to find three naked men in cowboy hats intruding on his property. Concerned for his family's safety, he thought to call 911 — but didn't.

At a community meeting Thursday night on bias and accountability among Boulder police, Silva, who is black, explained to the department's chief and top deputies why it is he hesitates to contact law enforcement even when facing danger.

"What happens if I get shot?" he said. "The police department doesn't exist for me, but I wish it did."

Thursday's meeting, which went two hours and was attended by about 50 people, was intended primarily as a public update on progress the department has made toward the dozen recommendations made since the February release an independent report on police bias in Boulder.

That report — done by a firm specializing in police evaluation — suggested that Silva may have reason to worry about unfair treatment by cops; a black person in Boulder is more than twice as likely — compared with the city's overall demographics — to be cited for misdemeanor and traffic offenses.

Black people, who comprise about 1 percent of the city, have also accounted for at least 5 percent of all felony arrests in Boulder every year since 2011, the report found — though it argued the disproportion was weaker proof of "evident" bias than the citation figures.

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Of the report's 12 recommendations, the one police are working hardest to address concerns a lack of data. The department's policy on routine stops that do not result in citation or arrest has called for no data to be collected on contacted subjects' race and gender, nor on the length of the individual interactions.

By gathering more data, police say, they can better understand and address issues of bias.

"This is the direction of policing. It's needed so that information is no longer anecdotal," Chief Greg Testa said at the meeting. "It's important to gather the demographic information so that we have a complete picture of who we're contacting, why we're stopping somebody, how long they've been stopped and detained for, whether there was a search involved."

Boulder is far from alone in its past failure to collect the data needed for complete and accurate probes into bias. In fact, only two law enforcement agencies in Colorado do so presently.

"This is difficult," Testa said. "We're struggling with this. When we look at best practices — there is no best practice."

Testa told the audience that his office is developing a new procedure on data collection and implementing a new records management system. The department has also surveyed people stopped by its officers to ask how they felt they were treated, and has expressed interest in continuing to participate in forums similar to Thursday's.

It seems likely — based on numerous public comments made at the meeting — that future opportunities for such dialogue may require reformatting.

The meeting was held at the police department and centered on what police are doing to limit the consequences of racial bias, which some perceived as uneven parameters.

"I appreciated all the efforts, but I did notice they were primarily, 'Here's what I want you to know' or 'Here's what I want to hear from you,'" said Taishya Adams, a black woman. "There's not too much about community building."

Renee Morgan, a white woman seated nearby, chimed in moments later.

"I hear what you're saying, and it's all about you," she said.

Morgan continued by telling police how she perceives them.

"You all are terrifying. I just want to be clear about that," she said. "Those uniforms are terrifying. Community outreach is not about us coming to understand what you do. I think we're all profoundly aware."

Testa said that Boulder police hope to make it easier to accept feedback — even when it's uncomfortable, as with Silva, Adams and Morgan — from the community it serves. The department is more active than ever on social media, has a redesigned website that includes electronic complaint forms in multiple languages and is looking into creating a citizens advisory panel.

The panel, which the independent report recommended, would be separate from an existing professional standards review board that local advocates against police brutality have long held slants in favor of the state. Testa hopes it forms and begins meeting before the end of the year.

"The vision for this is community members will be a part of a panel ... who will talk to me directly, and the police department of other city staff as appropriate," he said. "We'll meet regularly and kind of let the group decide the direction we want to go in."

Morgan, for one, hopes that future dialogue is less like the "PR campaign" she felt she heard on Thursday, and more like a conversation among equals.

"We all know what you do," she said. "Making a cooler website or access to information — that's not it. It's actually about you becoming more like us."

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